An online magazine about international students

For my undergraduate senior thesis, I created an online magazine about a subject that is very personal to me: the international student experience. Having moved to Philadelphia from Singapore at age 19, I wanted to convey the highs and lows of living and studying in a foreign country, differentiating Interweave from the usual, one-note, "Go study abroad!" university publications; it's not all pass/fail classes and exotic (cringe) eye candy!

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I researched studies on international students, put out a call for submissions, pitched story ideas to my thesis mentors, and designed the magazine from scratch. I conducted surveys, reached out to my network, and obsessively took photographs when I went home for winter break. Interweave was my introduction to graphic design; I had to learn InDesign on the fly — a huge thank-you to my art school friends — and realized the importance of print bleeds.

Something else I carry with me to this day is "done is better than perfect." It took a midpoint nervous breakdown for me to learn that, but overcoming my perfectionist tendencies in favor of having an actual product to present was a huge lesson learned. I also did graduate, so I can't be too mad about that.